454 
dt at least encouraged them; and to it, 
perhaps might in some measure be 
ewig a portion of that enthusiasm, with 
which the subject of the present memoir 
aspired to, and finally obtained, public 
notice, 
Joha Opie, was born in the month of 
May, 1761, in the little obscure parish 
of St. Agnes, in the county of Cornwall. 
His father moved im a humble walk of 
life, bemg a’ village-carpenter; and the 
education: received by the boy is not 
iikely to have been very liberal. He 
himself, however,’ atthe early age of 
twelve, taught an evening school; and 
we are told, by very respectable au- 
thority, that ‘at “ten years old, he was 
not only able to solve many difficult pro- 
blems of Euclid, but was thought capa- 
ble of instructing others.’ 
Certain it is, howev er, that it was not 
in the character of a pedagogue. that 
young Opie, altbough denominated the 
little Sir Isaac,” distinguished himself, 
The first spark of latent genius appears 
to have been elicited en beholding ove 
of his companions employed on asubject 
of natural history, and the first effort of 
the pencil was directed towards the 
drawing and embelhshing of a butter-fly, 
an object at once gaudy and familiar, 
and not at all unlikely to attract the am- 
bition of a child. 
It would be curious in this place to 
trace the improvement of the future 
painter “ e’en from-his boyish days,” and 
thus become acquainted with his pro- 
gress in the three constituent principles 
‘of his art—composition, design, avd co- 
louring. Perhaps, obscure and insulated 
individuals, situate in a remote corner of 
a polished country, may resemble nations 
in the infancy of science. They proba- 
bly, like them, begin with the mere 
circumscription of shadows , by means of 
single Imes, and then proceeding by re- 
guiar Stages, advance so far as to eniploy 
a.singie colour, thus becoming skiogra- 
phists. aud nionochromists in succession, 
and without assistance. At length an 
outline 1s Paniogs by drapery and. at- 
ttude, and one common tint by a 
variety, A) generally a profusion, of 
colours, until sometinng, possessing the 
necessary qualifications of -a pee bas 
been obtained. 
Our young and untutored artist had 
dd as he perhaps theuglit, at this 
ery stage, when he was brouglit into 
notice by the inquisitive spirit and bene- 
volent intervenuoh of a man, who “hits 
himeelf, since that period, stood forth as 
Memoirs of John Opie; R.A 
(June f, 
a candidate for fame, and been saluted 
by trequent peals from her trumpets. It 
may be reacily supposed, that the person 
here alluded to, 1s no other than the 
celebrated “ Peter Pindar,” whose verses 
have at least as just a claim to origilia~ 
lity, as the productions of his pupil. This 
geutlen nan, whose unpoetic name is Dr. 
Jobin Wolcott, was born in the. town of 
Dodbrook, near Kingsbridge, mDevon- 
shire, but he was educated in the county 
of Cornwall. After residing’ some years 
in the Island of Jamaica, under the im- 
mediate patronage of his relation, Sir 
Wilham Trelawney, governor or that 
island, he returned to Fingland, and 
practised as'a physician at Truro. He 
had not heen settled there lony, before 
he, by mere accident, discovered, aud 
was enabled hy his zeal in respect to 
the Fine Arts to exhibit to the appro- 
bation of the world, an eminent natural 
genius, who, but for his early patronage, 
might have been-buried for ever in ob- 
scurity: for the Poet has very justly, as 
well as elegantly, observed : 
‘¢ Full many 2 flow’r is’born to blow unseen, 
And-waste its sweetness in the desert air '!* | 
Dr. Wolcott, who has always possessed a 
taste for painting, and at one time ac- 
tually wielded the pencil hnhself as an 
amateur, with considerable success.as to 
effect, was occasionally carried by _ his 
professional pursuits to the village of St. 
Agnes, about eight miles distant from 
the usual place of his abode. While — 
there, he had seen and admired some rude 
drawings in common chalk, especially 
likenesses, and soon tenner the history 
of the artist at the house of a patient. 
The Jady of the mansion, at the same 
time pointing to a very popular print of | 
a farm yard, such as is still daily exhi- 
bited in a large window, in the neigh- 
bourhood of St. Paul’s, uber rat che 
“ sawyer’s lad* in that parish, of whom 
she had already made mention, had co- 
pied it very ex actly.” 
On this, the Doctor immediately pro- 
‘ceeded to the saw-pit, at the bottom of 
which he discovered the youth in ques- 
tion, occupied about his daily labours, 
Having called him up, néver to descend 
again, he began to put questions about 
his. performances, and was told, in the 
true Cornish dialect, the accent Ok w hich, 
never wholly Pebok his tongue, a that 
od 
* The young man appears at this period to 
have been actually trans‘erred, as a parish 
apprentice, to a person of the nam sat Waeeler, 
asawyer” ” i 
Ver hence ” he 
ed 
ne eee 
orn sheen ag eat ke is nee ~ 
' 
